1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a compact cosmetic case coupling a lid and a housing with each other through a hinge member and, more particularly, to a compact cosmetic case capable of displaying the inside of the case by exposing the interior of the housing where each back of the lid and the housing faces closely to one another.
2. Description of Related Art
Cosmetic products including compact cosmetic cases are frequently sold these days in a way not for face to face sales in which a customer faces with a shop clerk having knowledge for products but for sales for ordinary goods in which a customer freely selects some among products displayed in the shop. Because, with the cosmetic products sold by such a sale method, the contents of the products are necessarily known to the customers accurately while the products are displayed, it is required, particularly for cosmetic products such as eye shadows or the like in which information about color and brightness must be accurately shown to customers, to be displayed in a way that the inside of the compact cosmetic case is identified when seen from the outside.
A compact cosmetic case had been proposed in, e.g., Japanese Utility Model (Petty Patent) Publication Showa No. 63-40,164, in which a lid of the compact cosmetic case is rotated almost 360 degrees when displayed at a store to show outside the color of the cosmetic material contained in the housing. The compact cosmetic case has a hinge member in a block shape fitted in a connection recess formed at a center of each edge of the lid and the housing, and shafts are inserted respectively between the lid and the hinge member and between the housing and the hinge member.
With such a structure, the conventional compact cosmetic case can be displayed as to show the inside of the housing by rotating almost 360 degrees the lid with respect to the housing.
The conventional compact cosmetic case described above generally has a structure that the hinge member is fitted in the connection recess between the lid and the housing and engaged with spring pins, but because the operator has to insert the spring pins in maintaining the hinge member at a prescribed position when the case is assembled, and because assembling the case requires a special positioning jig, the case cannot be assembled easily.
To the contrary, a conceivable method is to assemble directly the lid and the housing to the hinge member without using any spring pin. The compact cosmetic case thus structured, however, may disengage the hinge member on impact. Such a compact cosmetic case is generally carried as placed in a bag, so that the cosmetic material may be scattered in the bag if a small impact disengages the hinge member.